On 12 April 1861, General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, an 1838 United States Military Academy (USMA) graduate and former Superintendent of the Academy, fired upon Major Robert Anderson, an 1825 USMA graduate and Beauregard’s former artillery...

On June 12, 1919, Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur slipped quietly into the command of the garrison in the Hudson Highlands, more commonly known as the United States Military Academy at West Point. He had chosen to forego the usual extravagant...

In 1801, Mr. George Baron, a civilian mathematics instructor, arrived at West Point by the direction of the Secretary of War. Baron’s mission was to begin classes with the junior officers on post and newly appointed cadets in an effort to start a...

On 10 September 1973 a Cadet Honor Committee representing the United States Military Academy’s Corps of Cadets laid to rest the 102 year old tradition of formally silencing cadets found in violation of the Honor Code. The Corps’ decision to...

The International Cadet Program at West Point and at the other service academies has come under great scrutiny in the press recently. The primary issue is that out of 115 foreign cadets currently attending the service academies, only six are paying...

Since the birth of the United States Military Academy in 1802, there has been a growing debate on the primary mission of the Academy. Does the Military Academy exist solely to produce officers capable of performing their war-time mission in the...

To produce leaders of character, the Academy uses a rigid system of regulations that governs the behaviors of cadets. Thus, the Academy uses discipline as a tool to teach cadets to obey rules and to accept authority. Although renowned for its...

The Fourth Class System does not have a specific date of origin to assist in determining its history. The Fourth Class System does not command a specific zoom named in its honor at the Cadet Library. There is no plaque, painting, or statue in its...

The summer of 1943 was a watershed period in the development of military instruction and training at the United States Military Academy. An American nation involved in a world at war demanded more divisions, more material, more men, and more West...

It is December 1989 and there are rumors that the Superintendent will release his formula for determining the cadet Order of Merit before the Christmas break. The air around the Corps is filled with anticipation as the cadets wonder how the formula...

Previously considered the nation’s leading engineering and military school during the antebellum period, USMA provided the nation with trained graduates, critical to the expansion and security of the country. Through this mission, the Academy...

Since the beginning of its existence, the United States Army has relied on a corps of noncommissioned officers (NCOs) to execute the day-to-day business that is required in a professional army. From the battle of Yorktown during the Revolutionary...

LTG David Palmer, the Superintendent of the United States Military Academy from 1986 to 1990, changed West Point’s leader development system from the Fourth Class System (FCS) to the Cadet Leader Development System (CLDS). Several events that...

The present course in gymnasium began to take shape in 1885 with the appointment of Colonel Herman J. Koehler as Master of the Sword. In fact, Colonel Koehler did so much work in this connection that a history of his service is one of the course...

For almost two centuries, the mission of the United States Military Academy (USMA) has been to develop leaders of character. As the nation’s premiere leadership institution, the Academy currently builds its leader development program on two Bedrock...

In 1989 LTG Dave R. Palmer, the Superintendent of the United States Military Academy, made a decision to transform the structure of military instruction. He removed the military science courses from the academic year and established a two-week...

Armistice, German tanks, mechanized infantry, and dive-bombers raced across Poland to start World War II. Between November 1918 and September 1939, the German Army transformed the potential of the tank and the airplane into the realities of modern...